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Fresh Out of Prison With No Means of Support, Agriprocessors Workers Tell Their Stories
See an updated version of this story here. Postville, Iowa — When Gabriel Calicio was released from prison, five months after being arrested on immigration charges at the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, his only possession was the prison-issued blue jumpsuit he was wearing. Calicio, 21, was one of 389 people arrested during an immigration raid…
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Yid.Dish: Sweet Potato Pancakes
Sweet potatoes could be the mascot of the sustainable foods movement. Packed with nutrition, including more than twice the daily suggested serving of vitamin A, antioxidants, protein, iron, potassium and other hard to get minerals, sweet potatoes provide a huge benefit to calorie ratio. They taste wonderful, they’re even anti-inflammatory, which can help mitigate inflammation-related…
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Yid.Dish: Three Kinds of Shepherd’s Pie (Traditional, Vegetarian, Avant Garde)
Growing up, one of my favorite foods was my mom’s Shepherd’s Pie. It was a great comfort food, perfect for a blustery fall day, or a Shabbat dinner in February. I loved Shepherd’s Pie so much that when I went milchigetarian my mom took mercy on me and made up a vegetarian version of her…
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Ruth Gruber Honored at Free Speech Dinner
FREE SPEECH AND FOUR-LETTER WORDS ON MENU AT NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST CENSORSHIP AWARDS DINNER The National Coalition Against Censorship’s executive director, Joan Berlin, reminded the crowd gathered for the organization’s recent event that George Orwell had famously written that telling the truth in difficult times is a revolutionary act. At the October 21 “Free Speech…
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Advocacy Groups Ready for Domestic Push
Barack Obama will move forward with his domestic agenda with the son of a former Israeli resistance fighter as his first appointment and second-in-command. Rahm Emanuel, a Jewish congressman from Chicago and former Clinton White House staffer, accepted the post, which will put him in charge of implementing Obama’s policies. That will make him the…
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Strong Outreach Contributed to Obama’s Surge Among Jews
The Jewish support for Barack Obama’s historic election showed that despite lengthy and expensive efforts by Republicans, Jews remained a solid Democratic constituency, willing to vote in record numbers for a candidate who had to earn their backing. Initial exit polls indicated that around 78% of Jews voted for Obama for president, higher than the…
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For Blind Rabbi, an Election Night of Mixed Emotions
Demarest, N.J. — As polls closed in New Jersey on election night, the family of Dennis Shulman, a Democrat who ran for Congress in the state’s northernmost district, gathered around the television set — to cheer for Barack Obama. The results had not come in yet for Shulman, a blind psychoanalyst and rabbi with no…
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Shelves Empty as Three Plants Stop Beef Production
Postville, Iowa — In developments that are already crippling the availability of kosher beef in large parts of America, three of the nation’s five largest slaughterhouses producing kosher beef halted production in the first week of November. All eyes have been on the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, here in Iowa, which stopped producing beef last…
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Agriprocessors’ Bankruptcy Leaves Iowa Town Flailing
Postville, Iowa — In the days before the nation’s largest kosher meat company filed for bankruptcy, the company’s slaughterhouse here in northeast Iowa gradually shut down its operations, leaving angry workers without salaries or places to live, and animals caged and dying. Around town, men and women who had come to work at the Agriprocessors…
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After Jewish Battle, Prop. 8 Passes
Los Angeles, Calif. — With California Jews lining up on either side of a heated gay marriage debate, those opposed to gay nuptials were vindicated November 5 when a ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage passed by a narrow margin. Proposition 8, which calls for amending California’s state constitution to define marriage as solely between a…
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Centrist Foreign Policy Team Takes Shape
Washington — During Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, his foreign policy advisers were criticized by some in the Jewish community for not being sufficiently supportive of Israel. But president-elect Obama’s foreign policy team is shaping up to be centrist and pragmatic, strong on Israel and likely to use special envoys to deal with overseas conflicts….
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